My APR just got increased by 270 percent

From 7.99 to 29.4. From one statement to the next.

No, I was not late with a payment in the interim.

Do I have any legal recourse?

How is this not de facto loan sharking?

I just got a lot of primal screaming out of my system over the phone, but, seriously, other than paying someone $200 or so to transfer the balance to a moderately better rate, what recourse do I have?

 

Have you called the company you're with and demanded an explanation? Doing something like that without informing customers beforehand hardly sounds like good business practices.

 

Your choice is simple. Get out the scissors.

 

Did they add an annual fee? If not, call them and tell them you're going to keep the card open but not use it until you find another company that will give you the same credit line with a better APR, this way your credit score doesn't take a hit.

Telling them they've effectively lost your business will make them either A.) Fix it or B.) show you they really don't give a shit and justify your leaving them for greener pastures.

 

The same thing happened to most Citi customers a few months ago.

http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/threads/73872/

 

Also, I very much doubt this occurred without Simon receiving some sort of notice. Even before the new laws, credit card companies informed consumers before a rate increase, and the letter would have mentioned the option of opting out of the new terms and conditions. He likely received some sort of letter and just didn't read it.

Either that, or he missed a payment. In which case, no notice was needed.

 

Yeah, there's not a damn thing you can do about it. If you stop using the card, it's no significant loss to them. You're just one drop in an ocean.

Hate to be so defeatist, but that's just the reality.

As an added bonus, if your card is issued by a bank that was bailed out, they're basically charging you 29.9 percent interest to loan you your own money.

 

And if you do have any kind of a significant balance on your cards, that you are unable to pay off in its entirety each month, be prepared to be paying out most of your income, literally, to the credit card companies.

People will not be able to do it, long-term, and then our economy will really be destroyed, not to mention many more lives will be made miserable.

 

Really dude? REALLY?

 

If only this situation were as easy to solve as just getting out the scissors.

I agree with Ragu.

This scenario will have people breaking into their retirement accounts -- no matter the penalties for early withdrawal -- just to get their damn credit cards paid off so that they can rip 'em up.

Even though people are responsible for their cards, and, of course, shouldn't run them up, these companies know that that happens for a reason, and it's not always because somebody is not caring about being irresponsible.

And credit card companies take advantage of it the worst just when people are least able to handle it, despite the fact that the companies would certainly make a profit, anyway, even with lesser fees, APR's and interest rates. It really is criminal.

 

The economy -- and not just the American economy, though it's certainly one of the worst offenders -- is fundamentally dependent on people spending money they don't have. If people, en masse, ever start not doing that, the whole landscape is going to change.

It's one of those things where long-term, we'd be better off. But in the short term, with millions of people losing sales jobs and cashier jobs and serving jobs at high-end restaurants, etc., etc., it would be utter chaos.